[Clinico-experimental long-term study on the combined effect of clofibrin and nicotinic acid on abnormal fatty acid patterns in lipid metabolism disorders in the aged].

Seventy-one patients (forty-two males and twenty-nine females aged forty-five to seventy-six) with disturbances of fat metabolism were treated for three years with clofibric acid and nicotinic acid derivatives. Regular gas chromatographic analyses of the composition of cholesterol ester and triglyceride fatty acids in the serum showed an increase of linoleic, linolenic, arachidonic, and eicosane-pentaenoic acids and a decrease of palmitic, palmitoleic, stearic, oleic, and eicosanetrienic acids during treatment. These changes were far more strongly marked than under monotherapy. Possible causes of the observed changes include selective competitive inhibition of unesterified serum fatty acids, inhibition of lipolysis, effects upon hepatogenic fatty acid metabolism and LCAT, as well as better utilization of alimentary polyunsaturated fatty acids as a result of combination treatment. The increase of polyunsaturated fatty acids and the decrease of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids with their reciprocal relations to the prostaglandin metabolism may be considered a positive vasoprotective effect which is of particular importance in middle and old age.